Let's hear it for The Economist! In one stroke, they've offended Thais, Chinese, monarchists, everyone of mixed heritage and immigrants around the world. Only a magazine with a such long tradition and huge international reach could achieve so much in so few sentences. Fabulous work!
Who else could get away with calling Thailand's king "the American-born son of a half-Chinese immigrant?" In one sentence, they implied that there's something wrong with being born in the US, being Chinese, being of mixed parentage and being an immigrant; that covers, what, a billion-and-a-half people. Most people considered it romantic when Prince Charles married Diana Spencer, and most considered it romantic when Thai Prince Mahidol, the son of Thai King Chulalongkorn, married a commoner, but The Economist wasn't fooled. They knew that having a royal father couldn't outweigh the stigma of being birthed by a commoner, who no doubt instilled unsavoury ideas into her children. Brilliant!
Their only named source for their allegations is Paul Handley, author of the book, The King Never Smiles. I talked to Paul when the book came out and learned that he lived in Thailand for less than a year. He told me that the information in the book came from sources in the palace. Now, I lived in Thailand much longer, married into a well-connected Thai family, worked for a man whose wife is close to the queen, and never had anyone share confidences like that with me, but Paul managed to waltz right in and cozy up to these Asian strangers. Amazing!
The Economist does add this disclaimer: "Mr Handley says that....nobody has disputed the main facts in his book." Even though they themselves had doubts about his information, they bravely forged ahead and reported it as fact anyway. Bravo!
Most of the allegations in the article have no named sources, but that didn't stop the magazine from reporting them as fact either. This in international psyops of the highest order. The insulting characterizations, unsourced allegations and use of the dubious Mr. Handley is a brilliant way to rally support for the king and the anti-Thaksin forces without appearing to do so. The CIA itself would be proud of the subtlety of their misinformation campaign. If they keep this up, Thailand's monarchy will become stronger than ever, and the country will soon be led by the Democracy party, which has never, in its 60-year history managed to form a stable government. That means many more years to come of this exciting turmoil, providing opportunities for savvy investors everywhere to come in and pick up properties at bargain basement prices. Bravo Economist! Onward!
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